


Half a Deck

by naiad (iamnaiad)



Category: NSYNC
Genre: Drugs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-15
Updated: 2010-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnaiad/pseuds/naiad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's JC and there's Joey and then there's JCandJoey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half a Deck

Justin's made of lead. Every time he tries to lift his leg off the sofa, it's too heavy. He can't move his head from the armrest and his eyeballs feel like they're going to drop through the back of his skull. Lance is sitting on the far end of the sofa, right by Justin's feet - if Justin squints just right he can see the outline of Lance's old nose. He wriggles his toes against Lance's leg. "Yo, asshole."

Lance doesn't even look at him. "Hmm?"

"Share."

"What?"

Justin opens his eyes a fraction wider; Lance is still fixated on whatever's in front of him, so Justin pokes harder with his toes. "Hand it over." His throat's dry and scratchy already, but he doesn't care. "What the fuck are you looking at, man?"

Lance sucks in another drag before holding out the joint. He jerks his chin up and says, "Them."

Defying his body's weight, Justin gestures toward Lance's outstretched arm. He can't reach and he can't see anything except a fuzzy Lance outline and the ceiling. He folds himself in half and crawls around until his head is in Lance's lap. "I am Pretzel Man. Capable of bending into weird shapes in mere seconds." Justin starts giggling to himself, then pulls Lance's hand to his mouth and inhales. "Fuck, I need a beer." Lance is warm and Justin can't resist closing his eyes and burrowing a little. He lies there for a second, or maybe two, before remembering one of the reasons he turned around. "Who?"

"Who, what?"

Justin tips his head to look up at Lance. Lance's head is angled back against the sofa and he's staring at the ceiling now. "Who were you watching a second ago?"

"Justin, you are totally fucked up. I wasn't watching anyone."

"Yeah, you were. I asked you what you were looking at before I turned around."

Lance glances down at Justin and a slow grin spreads across his face. "You've been asleep for, like, fifteen minutes."

"Bullshit." Justin's eyes feel kind of crusty, but he's not going to admit that Lance is right.

"I have the drool on my leg to prove it. See." Lance bounces his thigh once underneath Justin's head. "I'll send you the dry cleaning bill."

Justin doesn't feel quite so heavy anymore, but he's comfortable and Lance isn't trying to move, so he stays where he is. "Fuck you, man. I don't drool. And what were you watching before? I need to know."

The vibrations of Lance's laugh echo through Justin's head.

"JC and Joe. They left for a while, but they're back now." Lance's hand feels big on Justin's head as he turns it slightly. "Look."

Justin opens his eyes again and JC and Joey snap into focus.

They're sitting on the floor, their backs to Justin and Lance - close, but not so close that they don't have to tilt slightly in order to touch. That's what they're doing. Tilting. JC's shoulder is sharp and clear where it's pressed into the flesh of Joey's arm and it's the only part of either of them that isn't moving.

Justin blinks and the sound of Rallisport Challenge 2 rushes into his ears. It's so very loud and he has no idea how he didn't hear it before.

They're loud, too. Joey's grunting and whooping and JC is shouting 'no' and 'come on' as his legs flail. He's playing with his whole body. They both are – shifting side to side and back and forward, but always touching. Justin wonders how come they can move, and why they're so clear when everything else is blurry. He's pretty sure they smoked as much as he did. More, maybe. He can only move one hand, so he presses it to an ear to make things quieter.

Lance's palm runs over Justin's head and Justin starts. He'd forgotten Lance was there. Lance curls Justin's hand up in his and moves it before he speaks. "It's different. The way they are."

"Yes. No. I'm not sure." And Justin isn't, even though they're pretty much the only thing he can see. They've been together for so long now; it's become part of the background. There's JC and there's Joey and then there's JCandJoey. Justin's never known them as separate. They've been a couple ever since he met them and he's always thought it was like two people grew from a greater whole - there was no JC before Joey and there was no Joey before JC. Neither of them exists without the other.

Justin sighs and Lance runs a soft thumb over the back of his hand. He just wishes he knew what he was looking for. Lance seems so sure, and everything except JC and Joey is fuzzy around the edges, but he still can't get a lock on any of it.

"I wonder where it is?" Lance asks and Justin's lost again.

"What?"

"The new ink."

Justin can feel Lance's belly now he's leant forward off the sofa back. Justin thinks his head might be getting squashed, but it doesn't hurt so it doesn't matter. "Whose new ink?"

"J-" Lance doesn't finish because Chris drops to the floor right in front of them.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Chris has blocked the view of Joey and JC, so Justin watches him instead. He's rolling a roll of scotch tape around and around in his hands. The tip of one finger is gliding over the flat surface as he rotates it. "Fuck," he says again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Chris. What are you doing?" Lance hates not knowing things. Justin loves that about him because it usually means that Lance will ask before Justin has to.

Chris glances back and his eyes meet Justin's. Justin smiles at him and Chris just laughs. "Trying to find the end of the tape."

"But why do you need tape?"

"For my sculpture."

"Your sculpture." It doesn't sound like a question to Justin, but Chris answers Lance regardless.

"My tape sculpture."

Justin thinks maybe he's having an out of body experience. The whole conversation feels like a David Lynch movie – all hazy around the edges with people saying what they mean, but not really. There's a hidden message somewhere, but he's not sure what it could be. What does tape mean anyway?

"You're making a sculpture of tape." There's a smile in Lance's voice and Justin smiles with him.

Chris makes an indignant noise. "No, smartass. I'm not making a sculpture of tape. I'm making a sculpture from tape."

"Why?" It's JC and suddenly he and Joey are on either side of Chris, but somehow still touching. They're always touching, even when they're not.

The roll of tape rotates through Chris's hands again. "Because I'm hungry."

"You're sculpting because you're hungry." Lance sounds so amused and Justin can feel how close he is to laughing by the twitches in his thigh. Food sounds good though. He's just realized he's starving.

"Food." He blurts it out and now they're all looking at him. "I'm hungry."

"Delivery," says Lance at the same time as Joey yells, "Pizza!"

"Yes. Yes." The roll of tape bounces to the floor as Chris, JC and Joey scramble for the phone. Chris tries to shoulder JC out of the way when they get close, so Joey tackles him and they all end up in a tangled heap on the floor. Justin can't see much with his head twisted around, but it's like he's looking through a microscope when he sees Joey run a finger along the skin above JC's pants right before JC jumps up with the phone in his hand and shouts, "I am the king!"

Chris groans and Justin imagines he can hear Chris's eyes rolling. "Just get one of everything," Chris says. "I'm so fucking hungry."

JC orders and it's quiet again. Justin closes his eyes, but opens them when Lance runs the tips of his fingers under Justin's t-shirt.

"Wake up, Justin."

Justin pushes the heel of his hand against his eyes. They're lead again. "I wasn't-"

"Asleep. I know, but you have to get up, we're playing cards."

Lance's face is close and Justin can smell his cologne. It's a little bit spicy, but fresh at the same time. It's so weird how smells can be manipulated like that. Justin rubs his eyes once more and focuses.

Chris, Joey and JC are sitting in a semi-circle facing the sofa. Joey's looking straight back at him with a smile that makes Justin want to know what he's thinking. Chris is attempting a fancy shuffle and JC's picking up the cards Chris is dropping. JC is leaning forward and Justin can see Joey's hand resting against the small of JC's back. Touching, again – still. Lance has a hand on Justin's stomach and he uses it to nudge Justin. Justin lets himself be pushed to sitting and then slips to the floor. When his back is against the sofa he asks, "What are we playing?"

They're playing 'Asshole' and Justin loses the first game. It's not that he's a bad player, he just can't remember how to play exactly. Also, he keeps forgetting what the lead was. They're all laughing at him, but he doesn't care. He's with his family and he missed them like crazy.

"We missed you too, J," Chris says. "Now play your fucking card."

Justin looks at the cards in his hand, looks at the pile in the middle and then looks up. Chris is tapping a beer bottle against his knee, JC and Joey are tilting again, but have their cards turned so neither can see and Lance is just sitting quietly. They're all looking back at him. "Um."

"Anything higher than a ten, J."

Justin smiles gratefully at JC and glances at his cards again. This would be so much easier if he could see properly. Someone must have dimmed the lights when he wasn't paying attention. He plucks out a card with a picture on it and puts it on the pile. "I'm hungry. How long until the pizza gets here?"

JC loses it. He starts giggling and can't seem to stop. His arm keeps gesturing at Justin and he falls into Joey as his body goes limp with laughter. The others are laughing now too and Justin just stares at them. He knows he looks confused, because he is confused. "What? What'd I say?"

"The pizza got here twenty minutes ago." Lance's breath is hot on Justin's ear, his chest firm against Justin where he's leaning in. "We ate already."

Justin looks around slowly and there are the pizza boxes, stacked in a random pile right behind Chris. "But. I thought this was only the second game? And how come I'm still hungry?"

Chris cackles and Justin thinks he should be offended. "J, man. I thought I was fucked up, but you. You are so fucking fucked up it's hysterical."

JC is still slumped in Joey's lap and Joey lifts his head from watching him to look at Justin. "Ignore the asshole. This is only the second game." Joey frowns a little. "Hang on. How can this only be the second game?"

"Because the fucked up one keeps playing the wrong cards."

Chris cackles again and Justin doesn't think Chris is in any position to be mocking. He lunges over the cards and onto Chris. Chris smells like pizza and beer and he lands an elbow right in Justin's stomach as he struggles to get free. Justin has him pinned though – squished on top of the boxes, between his knees and caught around the wrists. He's ready to crow about his victory when Chris moves and sends him right into JC and Joey. They're warm like Lance, and bony, especially where Justin lands. JC grabs Justin's hand and Joey jumps on him and the next thing Justin knows, he's underneath all of them. They're pushing and pulling and bending, but Justin just lets himself be loose. He expended his last bit of energy jumping Chris and now there's none left to push his way from the bottom.

Someone pushes against his bladder and Justin winces, deciding that maybe he really does need to move. He sticks a hand out, grabs the nearest body part and shoves with as much energy as he can muster. "Off," he says. "Get off, now." He pushes again and it's JC who goes tumbling. Justin kicks out with his legs and someone else falls off. Justin doesn't care because it's all the space he needs to get free. He pulls himself up and dashes to the bathroom.

When he gets back the others are still fooling around. Lance's head is caught between Joey's leg and the Xbox. It looks uncomfortable and Justin wonders if he should go to Lance's rescue; instead he slides onto the sofa and watches JC crawl away to flop on the floor next to him. He's flushed and grinning up at Justin. It's a beautiful smile and for a tiny second Justin is jealous of Joey, but then he notices JC's arm. His sleeve has fallen to his elbow and there's something on the inside of his forearm. Justin half rolls off the sofa and snatches JC's arm. "'C? What the fuck?" He shouts it accidentally, because he's just so fucking surprised. There's a tattoo on JC's skin. Justin rubs his thumb over it and feels a slight scab. There's a new, real tattoo on JC's skin.

Justin can feel the others looking at him and JC, but he's mesmerized. The ink is beautiful – delicate, but masculine; intricate lines interwoven in a swirl over JC's skin. Justin traces it lightly with his fingers. He has no idea what it's meant to be, but it's JC, so it has to mean something. "What is it?"

"My name, and JC's." Justin looks up and Joey's sitting by JC's feet. His hand is wrapped around JC's ankle and Justin can see the fabric of JC's pants moving where Joey is brushing JC's skin. "Kel designed it and made sure nobody but us could read it."

Justin's not looking at Joey anymore, he's trying to find their names in JC's skin. "How?"

JC laughs, but Justin hears an edge in it. "General anaethestic is so fucking expensive, dude. You have no idea."

"That's incredible, JC. I can't believe you did it." Lance is sitting next to Justin now and his fingers are following Justin's over JC. "I thought it was Joe that had the work done."

Joey's smiling at JC and Justin feels like he shouldn't be there. He looks back at the tattoo and their fingers moving along it. Lance was right. It is different.

"Shit!" Chris's voice makes Justin jump and he tears his eyes from JC's arm. Chris is waving a bunch of cards in his hand. "I just found these in under the pizza boxes. We were only playing with half the deck."

Justin giggles, because it wasn't his fault after all and he isn't the only one who's wasted.


End file.
